I can't find a book, and it is literally slowly driving me insane. We have a system for filing books, and normally finding a book order is no problem. Even if it's misfiled, it's usually close by. A hardback being filed in paperback, for instance. Sometimes if we cant find a book, we leave and come back to it in a few hours...and usually find it right away. Sometimes we end up cancelling the order because we literally just can't find it. Then we find it immediately, of course..

And once in a while..books are just gone. I don't know where they go.

Mark lists most of the books, and he has very poor short term memory. He doesn't pay any attention to the books he lists, and even if he happens to read the title, he forgets about it 5 minutes later. I remember every book I've listed.

I usually pick out the books we're going to buy, because I seem to have the knack for finding better books. I only physically list about 20% of the books we buy, And Mark lists the rest. I could go in the library and show you every book I've listed. This is because I'm usually stuck listing the "hard to list" books because Mark doesn't have any patience for that. If the book doesn't come up in half's database, he tosses it aside for me. Mostly those are the pre-ISBN (1977) books. I have to research the book, find sites where people have the book for sale, decide what is a competitive price, and list it manually. So I "get to know" the book more than Mark does. And this book that is missing right now is a book I've listed. I have touched, fondled and fanned the book. And now it is gone.

I've looked everywhere. Now it is time to start at the letter A and look at the title of every single book in there. It is a last resort. It is the last ditch effort before Mark and I glare and sigh at each other and finally say "cancel it."..which we really hate to do. It's like someone offering you free money, but you are too disorganized to take it.

Do you know how long it takes to scan an entire room full of 6000 books?

It probably seems really trivial and insignificant in your life, but this is my life.